Dave, they both have the same vigor and size. Those of you who have key lime tree, which one of these seedlings' leaves look like the key lime in your care? They don't look like the leaves on my bearss lime.

The top pic is a key lime. They are very thorny and have somewhat rounded leaves like that one.

Evan

Thank you Evan! I am really curious about the second half of the equation, it is so far Y=? :))

Kelley, the wait for us is going to be a long one, if they are not key limes :))

Quick update on my key lime seedlings. The first one:

The second one started growing thorns, but the leaves are different :

Side by side:

The one in the blue pot looks like a Key Lime.... I'm not sure about the one in the brown pot.... The leaves look odd.... Maybe it's a wild key lime hahah... Just saw on tv the other day that there are blueberries that grow in the wild and apparently they're better than the regular blueberries in stores.

Dave, they are growing happily so far, still in little cups, need to repot them soon. They are from one seed.

Sunshine...imagine it was some new delicious lime how cool would that be. I only recently found out (via Steven) that these would fruit from seed. I'll be joining in your seedling adventures soon (hopefully)

Saltysea, you mean they fruit sooner from seed and are true to type:)) I will try to grow them alongside each other and observe, they will teach me a thing or two :))

Yes thats what i meant :). I grow lots of things from seeds just for fun with the realisation I may never reap any further rewards. However, now that I know that I may get delicious fruit at the end, my enthusiasm increases.

I like the way you think, I have planted other tropicals from seed as well, so far I have soursop, cherimoya, lychee, coconut palm, genip, dragonfruit, jackfruit, dates, loquat, avocados, guava, wax apple, pomegranate, figs all from seed and they are doing fine. I am learning a lot about how they all look, their growth patterns and demands :)

Oh wow sunshine that's a lovely collection. I was wondering if anyone else ventured much into non-citrus territory. I'm growing a subset of what you have. No coconut, jackfruit, guava (unless you count a fejoia), dates or wax apple and i don't know what a genip is. I will have to research.

Also my figs and dragonfruit are from cuttings as opposed to seed.

Oh, forgot to mention cactus fruit, mulberries( bonsai), passion fruit and goji berry seedlings :)

Update on key lime seedlings. Repotted last night the first seedling in to a nice deep 2 litres water bottle with top cut off, made huge holes in the bottom and used a piece of fruit mesh bag at the bottom to prevent the soil from washing out of the container, wrapped it in kitchen tin foil to not expose the roots to light. All materials came from my recycling box items, the less waste goes out of my home, the better it is for mother Earth :)) I normally don't buy bottled water, picked up the bottle when I was on a trip. The second baby has to wait for up poting, because I ran out of time. Here are the pictures:

The tree trunk has a beautiful curve at the soil level:

I h

had a seed grown Fukushu kumquat tree like yours with a beautiful curve I

gave to a friend

Potted up and given to a friend.

Steve

Steve, wow, it's a beautiful tree!

Sunshine, how did you separate your lime seedlings? I've got 2 lemon seedlings that seem to be joined together at the base which looks woody. They have a curve just like Steve's tree so it's not easy to just ease them apart. They're about 5" tall and growing well but the single seedlings from the same planting are growing faster. I'll try to post pictures later.

Here's pictures of what the conjoined lemon seedlings look like. I've been easing the stems apart but the knot at the base seems pretty tight and I don't want to break anything. Overall the plants are healthy and growing well so I'm thinking I should just leave them alone.

I would recommend that you cut one off at the base, as would be done by all commercial nurseries.

Cf03, I separated the seedlings when they were growing the first true leaves, I gently pulled them apart and they easily came apart. Planted them in separate containers and that was it.

What kind of lemon was the seed from?

Thank you Silica and Sunshine for your comments. I did think of separating them when they were small but was afraid I'd crush the little stems in trying to pull them apart. I've been waiting to see if one is stronger and cut the weaker one but so far the growth rates are pretty equal.

Sunshine, they're Limone Rosso lemons so I'm inclined to keep both unless I really have to pick one over the other. If the seeds came from a supermarket lemon, I'd have snipped one long ago.

Hi everyone! It has been a while, just a quick update on the twin seedlings. Here is how they looked on May 07.

Here's what they look like right now:

They get the same amount of care and love, but the difference in their growth and appearance makes me wonder :) So strange, that the smaller tree doesn't improve. Give me some ideas to improve the weakling :)

i would bet you cannot improve it much. It is genetically programmed to be a weakling that will probably die at some point. I guess it is a random hybrid from a flower probably pollinated by another citrus or by self pollination.

I agree with nik. It will die.

Add more nitrogen, inspect for soil pathogen damage. I see no reason for that tree to die.

*expletives* what am I doing wrong!

That one of the left looks just FANTASTIC.
My 13mo old lemon seedling isn't doing anything! It's in excellent soil, stays warm, full sun, well fertilized.....
I am so envious. I think it might be time to start over and try again.

Look at this stupid thing:

I really like your tin foil idea there. The rubber tree on the left needs to be watered twice a day sometimes, the pot dries out ridiculously fast. Foils a class I vapor barrier. Never would've thought of using it. I was going to repot it or paint it or something. Foil is nice and temporary.

Matt, don't bash the poor thing :)) it looks nice, healthy and it is growing roots. Give it a chance, water, feed it and it will reward your efforts.

I think it looks fine to. I have 4 seed grown Meiwa kumquat trees that still cant stand up. Seed grown trees take more time

Sunshine, here is my seed-grown key lime for you to compare to. Just took this pic today, the tree is 3 years old. So you have a ways to go lol.

It has a lot of fruit on it, beautiful! How tall is the tree?

Its about 5 feet high and wide. Definitely wider than it is tall though. And I would say there are hundreds of fruitlets on it, maybe 1000, its crazy lol. None have really swelled up yet, so im sure most will drop. Also, its been in constant bloom since last fall. But anyway, good luck with yours, it definitely grows fast. Finding a suitable spot in winter is tough!

Wow Jaydub, that tree is beautiful, I am excited more for my tree now, only 2.5 years to go :)

Quick update on the twin key lime seedings. I have repotted the first seedling three times since it was sprouted (end of November 2017).

It is growing like there is no tomorrow :))

The second one is "weeping" :)

Beautiful little tree sunshine, they are so vigorous from seed. This thread made me go back and check some of the old pics I have of my key lime, and it's amazing the growth it put on in each progressive picture. By next summer I bet yours will be 3 feet tall and wide.

Also, does anybody know what time of year key limes are typically ready to pick? I'm getting anxious lol.

Probably when one gets its first touch of yellow they will b ripe.

It maybe the leaves and not the roots that are a problem. Try grafting a bud from your good tree to th roots of the bad tree. It should take dominance if it is the leaves that are not right.

Steve

Sunshine, I just found this thread and your key lime tree looks amazing!

I have a question- once you put the seeds into the dirt, how often were you watering them? Were you using a watering can, or a spray bottle, or did you cover it in plastic wrap? I have seen people do that before.

And does anyone know if key lime seeds like partial sun or full sun before they have sprouted?

Thanks!

Hi Courtney, I sprouted the seed in moist paper towel inside a ziploc bag, it only took couple weeks to sprout. Similar to these seeds of a different citrus variety

Then planted the seed not too deep, left a tiny portion of the white root showing above the soil line, in order for the seedling to not die from damp off, watered as top 1-2 inches of soil dried. You don't have to cover the seed in container, place in partial sun and watch it grow. Fertilize at half strength dose two weeks after the repotting. I give my young plants only water that is left overnight in a container or a bucket, the water straight from the tap has chlorine in it. It doesn't matter what container or watering can you are watering with. For sprouting seeds directly in the soil you can place them under partial sun and keep them moist, the soil can not be bone dry. One important thing, your container that you grow any kind of plant or tree in, has to have lots of holes in it ( for good drainage of water out of the container).

Just a quick update on the growth of the key lime siblings, last update for this year, will do another update next spring. They are definitely not identical twins :) Picture was taken few days ago:

The trees are now indoors. With all the tropical weather we had this summer it turned out that Canada is not a tropical country YET :) The purpose of posting chronological pictures is to help other people who read this thread to grow trees from seed and be encouraged.

sunshine, I am surprised the runt is still alive. Not only alive, but looking pretty good. Nice job!

Hi Vladimir, yes it's still hanging in there, I gave it a bigger dose of fertilizer, but it is not the most vigorous type :), I am curious to see what it's fruit might look like one day (if it survives).

Great work sunshine.

I also post pictures with info to let people know of good ways to grow from seed successfully.

Steve

I wonder if the "runt" will set a new variety of fruit once it's mature enough, whether it be better or worse than regular key limes.

its been 3 years, any update on what the 2 were?

I can answer the question.

This does not happen often but occasionally both a zygotic and a nucellar seedling can sprout out of the same seed. The nucellar seedling will typically be the stronger one and be genetically identical to the fruit parent. The zygotic one resulted from sexual recombination and have different mix of genes.

Usually the nucellar seedlings sprouting out of the seed (if there are any) are so strong that they take all the energy away and the zygotic sprout will not form.

Steve, how does that curved seedling look today? It's very nice

Very strange

any updates? Any fruit?

Meyermike a year ago. "Steve, how does that curved seedling look today? It's very nice)

will have to get back with you when I can get into the greenhouse. It is doing very good and It has fused and in not visible. pictures later

I also had the same thing happen! planted 2 seeds from the same key lime. one has round leaves and thorns, other has elongated leaves without thorns! I am so interested to see what happens!